HISTORY
From a historical perspective, the concept of self-determination never had any significant importance as a driver of political change. As we have explained in Political Systems Lifecycle the main engine of political change is the economy. However, at its most basic and hidden from view, self-determination plays a role because people believe that if only they could make this or that economic decision, they would be better off. Yet, even in this regard, decisions are denied or severely limited by politicians through direct interference (through laws) or by actions from Central Banks (see Central Banks Engines Of The Evil Empire).
In the end, the only manner in which some people manage to secede and hence receive some level of self-determination is through wars. Once they are free from the old country, it is only a matter of time before other countries recognize their existence. This is so because politicians recognize peers when they see them. They do recognize that in order to keep other peoples from seceding they need more politicians… such as the ones that just took over the country recently seceded. Basically, they recognize a new member of their club when they see one.
Historically speaking, there were very few countries that began their existence through a bloodless secession. In the very few occasions when this did happened, it occured because the parent country or empire simply could not afford the economic price to keep them (expressed as political or military cost) or, even rarer, it happened by mutual agreement. However, the bottom line is that most of the time nobody exercises self-determination and wins. These people are always labeled as "rebels" or "terrorists" until they are driven to extinction or they succeed. If the former happens, they are then relegated to the footnotes of history, if even that. In the latter event, they become the heroes of the liberated country.
Yet, they are one and the same. The difference between one or the other is simply success or failure since history is always written by the victors. However, if we are to look at the root cause of all this pain, suffering, death and destruction, what we find is simply the refusal of politicians to recognize self-determination at the personal level. That's it! This is as basic as it gets.
TTP
In this sense, the TTP is no different than any other group of people that are trying to secede. Of course, they may have other goals and grand plans; they may be ridiculously religiously intolerant, they may be blood thirsty and they may use terror as a weapon, but so what? All this actually stems from the fact that nobody on earth is permitted to self-determine. We keep going back to the very same origin of the problem. The TTP is an example of the resulting action from governments, not the problem. If the TTP is destroyed, this won't do anything to prevent other groups from seceding and be, in turn, labeled as terrorists simply because the root cause has not been eliminated.
THE UPSIDE AND THE DOWNSIDE
Many people believe that preventing widespread self-determination is somehow deleterious to one's health (be it freedom, finance, standards of living or otherwise). To a degree, they are correct. This is so because different "peoples" are at different stages of their political evolution. People who do not believe in personal self-determination and continue to believe in governments, may simply decide to take over other people who will be helpless to prevent such a takeover. Consider this. If country A dissolves into an outburst of personal self-determination, then it becomes an easy target for country B to simply take over. Who is going to oppose an invasion from country B? The government is gone and the military is gone. There is no protection. It is for this reason that currently widespread self-determination is simply not viable; because it would fail miserably. This is reality and there is no point in denying it. This is another reason why we need political evolution, so that most people in all countries at least understand what's going on in others while at the same time are weakening their own government powers enough so that they are no threat to other, more evolved (and self-determined) "peoples". Timing is important, although a large degree of synchronization in political evolution is not that critical.
The downside of this reality is that widespread self-determination won't happen any time soon. The upside is that when it begins to happen, it will be unstoppable.
COMMENTARY
The basic principle upon which all governments operate is the principle of brute force. As a citizen you can and will be compelled to do anything the government wants and you have no saying in it. Of course, these actions are always wrapped in pseudo-popular decisions and methods, such as votes and representatives. But in the end, all governments (and more specifically politicians) make decisions completely disconnected from what people want. They do so because they cannot do otherwise (they cannot represent simultaneously opposing views) and it is in their best interest to do so (they want to keep their jobs - Politicians And Bureaucrats Job Security Through Misery). These decisions include the denial of personal self-determination as a cornerstone of their legal (but not legitimate) activities.
If people are allowed to self-determine, this would instantaneously mean country dissolution. The whole point of owing a government (as politicians do) is to maintain power by preventing people from leaving it. There is no point in being the head of a government in a country of one.
Because of this selfish point of view, personal self-determination is rejected at all levels of government. This necessarily leads to all the legal complications and nonsensical definitions which we have reviewed above. This also leads to widespread bloodshed, misery, wholesale destruction and economic regression all of which produces the widespread lowering of standards of living.
We are Libertarians because we recognize that our very most basic right is to self-determine. This is nothing but a different way to say that we, at the most personal level, determine what it is that we want to do with our lives. We; not somebody else. Because this self-determination can only be exercised personally since we are all different; for as long as this is denied to us through the use of force, we won't be free.
Of course, the use of violence and even the use of political sovereignty leads nowhere in this area because it only revives and refreshes the cycle of control. There won't be any real progress until people evolve politically to a point at which they realize that the main obstruction against our very own self-determination are the countries themselves. The basic truth is that there is no freedom in countries. Countries do not grant freedoms to us. We have freedoms, countries do not.
The solution to the problem is political evolution, which the world is already embarking on (see When Countries Dissolve).
CONCLUSION
We developed this article with a simple intention; to show how a basic mistake leads to gigantic problems. We also wanted to provide a current example of such mistakes. Self-determination is simply an expression of freedom and as such, it cannot be tolerated by people whose very jobs and privileges depend upon keeping us under their control.
In the end, we end up with the redundant conclusion which we redundantly reach oftentimes: remove governments from the problem, and the problem goes away.
Believe it or not; it's entirely your choice.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
